


Fake It

by Axolotl7



Series: May Moments  - one shots and missing scenes [3]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, Missing Scene, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-27
Updated: 2015-06-27
Packaged: 2018-04-06 10:47:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4218831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Axolotl7/pseuds/Axolotl7
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>May takes Fitz aside to give him some tips for his first mission.</p><p> </p><p>Missing scene for The Hub</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fake It

**Author's Note:**

> Anyone else ever wonder how our suddenly dear sweet little panicky scientist Fitz changes between one scene and the next to trying to be cocky and confident secret Agent Fitz?

May  
She’s worried about Fitz.

Fitz isn’t ops trained. Hell, he’s not even got basic mission training! Why would he need it? There are thousands of agents, operations trained agents, that are more than capable of taking on missions like this. The demand that Agent Hand has made for Fitz specifically causes her concern. It doesn’t sit right. There’s no reason to send an untrained agent in to disable a weapon. The reasoning given doesn’t stack up – a lack of specifications for the weapon wouldn’t necessarily require a scientist be sent to dismantle on sight. Even if it did, they had many scientists that had training for such missions. Hell, Bobbi Morse could do it as a one woman infiltration in her sleep! 

But they were sending Fitz.

It wasn’t something she could change though by God she had tried arguing her point with Coulson for a good half hour before he shouted her down. He agreed with her, she knew. He’d probably already had the same argument with Agent Hand but taken her role.

Now she just needed to send him out there as well prepared as she could make him in the few hours they had before wheels up.

 

Fitz  
“Fitz, with me,” Agent May calls to him as soon as they’re dismissed from the briefing. He could really do with heading back to his quarters. He wants privacy for the screams that are surely to erupt any moment now. His legs follow her almost on autopilot.

She leads him to a small office. The name plate on the desk says its Agent Sitwell’s but she doesn’t seem to be concerned so he doesn’t let it bother him.

“You’re going on your first mission. You’re bound to be nervous-” she starts saying to him.

“I’m not nervous,” he tells her. He can’t have her thinking that he’s not up to this. Even if he’s not.

“Everyone is nervous the first time, Fitz,” she explains patiently. She even gives him a small understanding smile. He’s surprised by the smile more so than the words. He can count on one hand the times he’s seen her smile at any of them and its always been at Agent Coulson. “There are two important things to remember. Firstly, if things go bad, do something completely unexpected. It’s good to have plans but you can’t always have a plan for every eventuality. Sometimes the resulting chaos from a surprising action is sufficient to alter the balance in your favour. Sometimes it’s just enough to confuse your enemy.

“Do something unexpected, surprise and confuse the enemy. Right. Got it.”

 

May  
Fitz’ eyes were wide open, a little glossy with the beginning stirrings of panic. He’d done well to hold it together through Coulson’s mission briefing.

“Secondly, you can’t afford to show that you’re nervous however understandable that may be. Out there, you need to be confident. You need to have confidence in your skills, in your ability to get the mission done. You need for your team to have confidence in you.”

He’s looking terrified now and the colour is draining from his face rapidly. She really hopes he’s not about to be sick… or to faint. They really don’t have time to get his confidence up if he’s going to faint.

“Fake it til you make it,” she says intending to catch him off guard, hoping to add a little humour to relax him before he faints.

“What?” He asks with a shy smile but he’s concentrating on her now and looking less pasty.

“If you pretend to _be_ confident, you will find that you are more confident. In every situation. Its helpful sometimes to pick a role model, a character you think of as being confident or capable or brave, they don’t even have to be real. It could be anyone. I know more than one person who emulates Captain America for example.”

“That’s Agent Coulson isn’t it?” Okay so maybe that example was a little bit too easy to work out.

“Among others,” she tells him with a slight smile. “But my point is that it can be anyone. Just pick someone and pretend to be them, act like them, make the decisions they would and just for a little while you might find that you are like them. Act confident and you’ll feel confident.”

He’s nodding at her, she can see that he’s thinking it through, probably considering a multitude of potential heroes to emulate, marking them out of ten for different attributes and comparing accordingly. He never makes any decision without proper consideration after all. Scientists. He needs not to overthink this. He needs to be able to go with his gut, to make split second decisions out there. “You have ten seconds to pick one, assume the character and come back inside. I expect to be impressed,” she says as she pushes him back out the door. That should cut down his thinking time. 

 

Fitz  
Ohgodohgodohgod. He’s got less than ten seconds to pick a character and impress Agent May. But all that keeps going round in his head is a flick between The Terminator and James Bond. He isn’t a robot with super powers and he certainly isn’t a suave gentleman brit! Less than five now! Maybe he could do Ward, or May herself, or even Coulson but he’s not convinced he knows any of them well enough to pretend to be them. He runs through the Avengers in turn but they all have superpowers or super skills that he can’t help but think would boost their confidence whilst he has… nothing.

“Time’s up. Impress me,” May calls to him through the door.

He gapes like a fish for a few more seconds he’s sure but he’s no time to think of anything else. He closes his eyes, takes a long deep breath and flings himself into character. He’s ended up with some bizarre mish-mosh of all of his favourite heroes and heroines, he’s not sure what will come out when he opens his mouth.

“Fitz?” May calls again.

“Coming,” he calls back and he’s disheartened to note that his voice breaks on the second syllable. He’s got nothing. He can’t do this. He opens the door to tell Agent May just that but as his hand touches the door knob it comes suddenly to him – he’s Captain Kirk.

Agent May is looking directly at him when he enters. Its intense but Captain Kirk is used to such intensely searching stares. He just raises an eyebrow, smiling at the attention of a beautiful woman. His response cues an echoing raised eyebrow and, nope he’s not imagining it, another smile.

But suddenly he can’t think of anything to say that won’t sound ridiculous, his mind abandons him and he’s sure his face shows he’s on the verge of panic.

“Fitz, what did we just discuss?” May asks him. At least he’s fairly sure she did. His ears don’t seem to be talking to his brain right now. His brain certainly isn’t talking to itself. But what did they just discuss? Something about James Bond and Captains. No, wait it was about confidence. Pretending to be confident. Aaaaand about doing the unexpected to throw people off balance. Okay. He can do this. 

He can do this before his brain comes back on line and tells him exactly in minute detail why he can’t do this.

He takes three steps quickly forwards into the room and before he can think it through any further he’s tilting her head up towards him and kissing her.

May  
His soft lips suddenly upon her own was certainly unexpected.

That she was enjoying his kiss so much was even more so, she thought as she parted her lips slightly. She wondered briefly if his sudden confidence would extend to taking the lead. Hoped it would.

She flickered her own tongue out to dance over his bottom lip, encouraging him to open and engage her in play. He groaned at the attention. But his own groan seemed to wake him up from whatever dream state he’d been comfortably visiting as he backed off. She grabbed at the back of his head to stop him immediately fleeing, shaking his head slightly to make him meet her eyes. Once she’s sure that she has his attention, and he’s looking at her like she might break his neck any moment, she emphasises the one word “confidence” and smiles at him. 

His eyes widen extraordinarily.

A million expressions fly across his face as he thinks it through.

Just as she drops her hands from his head and prepares to give him the confidence boost he needs by complimenting him on the kiss, thinking that this is as far as it goes, his hands fly up into her hair and he surges forwards to press his lips back against her own. This time he isn’t frozen in shock. This time his lips are warm and moving, his tongue is teasing at her lips seeking entrance and when granted he wastes no time exploring her mouth thoroughly. His tongue dances, teasing and tormenting her own, twisting with her in a dance that makes her feel hot, makes her breathing heavy.

She wonders at the drastic inaccuracy of her preconceptions but who would have thought of Leopold Fitz as being such a good kisser. 

 

Fitz  
He’s kissing Melinda May. 

Oh God! He’s KISSING Melinda May.

He’s kissing MELINDA MAY!

He is. HE’s kissing her.

He’s still kissing her and oh God, she’s kissing him back.

He’s kissing Melinda May and she’s kissing him back!

He might actually have died and gone to heaven.

 

May  
They’re both hot and bothered as they’re forced to break from the kiss to breathe but neither of them is particularly eager to separate. She leans her forehead against his, encouraging him to do likewise, as they gasp – it both keeps him from fleeing embarrassed before she can say anything and hides her own expression, which she’s conscious may well be a little beyond her usual controlled facade.

Wow, seems to be all that her brain can think of at the present time. He’d probably preen if he heard that.

“Wow,” she says between gasps – he deserves to hear her say it. “That was certainly unexpected.”

“Surprise,” he chuckles quietly back at her and there’s none of the smugness she’s expecting/dreading to find there. It’s just pure Fitz.

“Excellent surprise,” she tells him wryly. “Little tip though: don’t try that on the enemy or they’ll be demanding that you see it through.” And with that bombshell she leans back away from him and her breathing is returning to an approximation of normal. He respects her non-verbal cue and steps back himself giving her space and they’re once again Agent May and Agent Fitz.

 

Fitz  
They step apart and there’s none of the Melinda May he was just kissing in her stance or her expression. She’s reassumed her distance and her mask. She’s once again ‘Agent May’ and he has to admit he’s a little disappointed. But its churlish to be disappointed when she’s trying to help him. When she _has_ helped him.

“Thank you,” he tells her earnestly. Then suddenly worried that she might think he’s thanking her for the kiss and rushes to clarify “not for... you know but for... _you know_.” Yep, that’s clarified thing beautifully.

“Anytime,” she says as she graces him with that mysterious little smile again.

He wonders if she really means that as he heads out of the office with a new confidence to his stride.

 

 

He kissed Melinda May...

...and she kissed him back!

 

 

 

May  
Well. That was certainly one way to ensure that Fitz felt confident as he left on his first mission, she thought as he waltzed out with a deliriously happy smile on his face. Not quite the one she had planned but probably more effective in reality.

She’d try to remember it the next time someone needed a confidence boost. 

For confidence boost kiss Melinda May.


End file.
